"... M-Mephy..?"
No response other than the light snoring and a tighter grip held onto the pillow in the hedgehog's arms.
More frantically now, the shadow reached out and shook him, lightly at first.
"... Meph-phy..." He moaned anxiously, losing the usual growlish undertone to his voice. "... G-get up... P-please..."
A slight increase in volume to the snoring, indicating that Mephiles was at the basic halfway point before being totally awake, rolling a little more on his side.
Dark finally just grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him roughly, causing Mephiles to jerk awake in a panic, crying out in shock and flailing about before he realized what happened.
"Dark! What in the-!" He started to snap at him, but quickly back peddled when he got a good look at Dark once his eyes adjusted to the dim nighttime lighting. "... Oh... Um... What's up..? You alright..?"
"... I threw up..."
Having not expected that as a possible answer, much less to be said in Dark's natural tone instead of his normal growl, Mephiles stared blankly before blinking and clearing his throat to say: "... Uh... Y-you okay, there..?"
"... I... I dunno..." Dark mumbled, hand pressed to one side of his head, face scrunched slightly, more so on the side facing a light source. "... Uh... I..." He cut himself off with a quiet whimper, gripping his fingers a little tighter on the side of his head, which Mephiles was absolutely certain beyond any doubt was the side of his skull that had the hairline fracture.
"Oh, geeze... Dark, why didn't you just say you were having a migraine?" Mephiles got up swiftly, instinctively reaching a hand to Dark's head and carefully started to lead him Dark to his bed. "... Go lay down, and I'll grab-"
Dark quickly caught him by the wrist and threw his arms around the hedgehog, as if afraid that he would disappear off the face of the planet if he didn't.
"... Um... Dark, are-?"
"Sssssssshhhhhhhh... Shush-shush-shush..." Dark whispered, gripping tighter. "... Shush... Shhhhhhh... Hear that..?"
"... Hear what..?" Mephiles was a bit worried, as Dark commonly hallucinated when he wasn't being himself.
"... Static..."
"St... Static?"
"... You hear it?" Dark sounded hopeful.
"... Like the TV on a bad channel?"
"No, like the music when the signal is bad..."
"The radio?"
"I know what I'm talking about!" Dark snapped at him, causing Mephiles to stiffen a little. "Don't correct me!"
"I-I wasn't-"
"Shush... Hear that, too..?"
The hedgehog heaved an exasperated sigh.
"... Is it static..?"
"... No, buzzing. Why would you say that? When have I ever heard static like that?"
Mephiles inhaled sharply, trying to keep from snapping back out of annoyance. Exhaling calmly, he said gently: "If I recall correctly, you were in the middle of having a migraine, so it might be wise for you to lay down before you get sick."
"Already did. That's why I woke you up."
"I know. Now, please, let's just get you back down before it happens again... Okay?" Mephiles forced a small smile, and pried himself loose carefully, holding Dark by the wrists. "Besides that, how are you? Are you burning up? You're not shaky, are you? How about-?"
"Shhhhhhhhh... Shhhh-shhhh-shhhh..." Dark hushed him again, giggling a little and pressing a finger against the hedgehog's lips, making Mephiles flinch back briefly. "You worry too much, you know?"
"Only because I care." Mephiles smiled back a little, pushing the hand away gently. "That, and I've noticed a pattern in you acting screwy which seems to predate something far worse."
"Pfffft... Oh, now you're just being paranoid..."
"And you've got a slight temperature again..." Mephiles touched his fingers to Dark's forehead. "Not a bad one, thankfully, but you're definitely warmer than you usually are."
"... It's the weather, I suppose..."
"And that's why we have the collar, remember? It regulates your temperature in warmer places..."
"I don't wanna wear it right now." Dark shoved his hand away and stuck out his tongue mild disgust.
"If it gets to where there's a heat danger with you, we'll have to, I'm sorry, Dark." Mephiles frowned a little, shaking his head slightly. "Besides, it's totally safe to use now, so if you're worried about being electrocuted, it's not going to happen."
"Still feel it, sometimes..."
"If you just let me heal it all at once, the marks will be gone, y'know."
"Then you'd have it instead of me." Dark shook his head and folded his arms. "No. Nuh-uh. Nope. Best if we do that gradually, so you have time to heal over in between..."
"Then it'll be months before it's gone!" Mephiles rose his voice just a bit, trying to convey that the idea sounded ridiculous to him. "Granted, it would take longer on it's own, but still... If I can help, you know I-"
"I know you would. You have, and you always will, if no one stops you..." Dark interrupted. "Knowing you, you'd keep at it well after the burns are gone, and try and heal all the rest at once, no matter how much it hurt you."
Mephiles mumbled sheepishly, which sounded like a reluctant agreement.
"You'd completely overlook the possibility of what the absolute onslaught of old injuries being transferred to you would do."
"... Th-That wouldn't even cr-cross my mind..."
"Exactly."
"Well, you still have to start wearing it soon, if you want to not have heat stroke when the weather starts getting all hot."
Dark grumbled something back, and shrugged while looking at the floor.
"We should really get back to bed before Shadow and Rouge catch us up this late..." Mephiles added, giggling nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "You of all people need the rest most right now, anyway..."
"... Don't feel like sleeping right now..."
Mephiles blinked, not exactly fooled, as he could see Dark trying to suppress a yawn rather poorly.
Something was up.
"... You know you can tell me anything, right?" Mephiles added, perking his ears forward a little. "... I won't laugh, even if you think it's embarrassing..."
Dark's pale face flushed a deep crimson around the cheeks, and he quickly dropped his head, mumbling under his breath, rubbing his arm nervously.
"Hmm..?" Mephiles hummed softly, asking him to speak up a bit more. "I'm sorry, I can't hear that..."
Dark shuddered briefly, glancing at his twin, who was impressively still asleep on the floor, in his "Shu" form, on the pile of bedding they laid out for him. His face paled a little more and his eyes widened as he shook his head quickly, moaning feebly.
"Dark, don't be scared, nothing bad'll happen." Mephiles assured him gently, catching Dark's hands in his own to pull him forward a bit more, Dark struggling against it weakly. "Please, I can't do anything to help if I don't know what's wrong..."
Dark stared at him with a horrified look, eyes watering and jaw trembling before he finally burst into tears loud enough to wake the whole house with his shrieks of anguish.
The following happened in the next two minutes.
Mephiles quickly let go of him and slammed his hands onto his own ear flaps, trying to save the hearing in his eardrums from being at ground zero of the sound explosion.
Iblis, who had been sound asleep up until that point, jumped up and had a handful of flames ready as a reflex, but Mephiles saw this and quickly extinguished it with a quick puff of shadow, mouthing to Iblis how that was a bad idea at the moment.
Iblis, thankfully having kept his "Shu" form, furiously gestured to the wailing shadow, glaring at the hedgehog as if it had been his fault from the start that his brother was so upset. Mephiles gave him a look that clearly questioned how Iblis had any thought in his mind that Mephiles would purposely do that.
With that minute passed, the next one brought the next half of the events, with the room door slamming open to show Shadow holding a Chaos Spear in a defense stance, and Rouge briefly facepalming at Shadow's quick to use his attacks response to this, as the lights flicked on.
"... If you were paying enough mind, it would have been clear that it was cry of anguish, not someone being attacked..." Rouge said levelly, slowly stuffing earplugs into her ears to free up her hands.
"Can't be too careful..." Shadow blushed nervously, dissipating the Spear. "... Which reminds me... What just happened?"
"I was trying to figure that out myself." Mephiles spoke over Dark's cries, hands still covering his ears. "I just asked him what was wrong, and after a few more times, he just burst into tears. I really don't-" Mephiles stopped mid-sentence, twitching his nose and cringing slightly after a quick sniff. "... Oh. Actually... I think I know what happened, now..."
Dark had already sunk to the floor now, and had his flushed face buried in his hands, curling inward as if wanting nothing more than to disappear at this moment, howling miserably.
"... Dark..." Mephiles said softly, carefully reaching over and placing a hand on Dark's back, trying to calm him down any way he could. He whispered to him: "... You missed the bucket, didn't you..?"
Dark gasped harshly, trying to catch his breath well enough to respond.
"... I... I-I... Th-that's never... That's never h-happened b-before..." He stammered, shaking his head and wailing even more.
Shadow wisely chose not to bring up the time he got barfed on, anticipating the response to be even worse than it was now.
"Don't be so hard on yourself, it wasn't on purpose, right?" Mephiles tried to assure him calmly. "I'm sure you're not the first to have that happen. Heck, I've done it before, too..."
Dark didn't seem comforted by the idea, and reached up to shove the hedgehog away forcefully, curling up again.
Mephiles sighed heavily, rubbing his fingers below his ears in frustration.
"... I can't help if you don't let me..."
Dark pulled himself under his bed, kicking a few unwritten notebooks out of the way. Not long after, a blueish glimmer indicated he was now staring out from under the bed, as his eyes were reflecting the moment he shifted around to look out from underneath.
"... Now, c'mon... You don't wanna sleep under there... It's dusty..." Mephiles shook his head lightly and reached under the bed carefully, speaking gently. "It's also a bit bad for claustrophobic people like you, so I think you'd feel better if you just crawled out of there..."
No response they could hear.
"... I'll come after you if I have to."
Nothing.
"... You wanna make some noise of some kinda to let me know you didn't lapse into some kind of fear induced black out at the realization that this is a bad little enclosed space to be in?"
"... Hmph"
"It's something..." Mephiles shrugged, sighing. "... Please come out..?"
Quiet again.
Mephiles sighed once more.
"... Might as well start cleaning up before it sets..." He muttered, shaking his head slowly.
A groan of humiliation sounded off ever so softly beneath the bed.
Fifteen minutes passed, with the clean up taken care of, a clean set of blankets and sheets put on the bed, the washer humming in the garage, and Dark still retreated beneath the bed, refusing to come out.
"You can't spend all night there..." Mephiles tried again, visibly tired as he shut off the lights, motioning for Iblis to make sure the plug-in nightlight was on to mask over the glow of the flame's eyes to no make Shadow and Rouge suspicious, should they check in later. "... It's all been taken care of, you can come out now."
Whatever the response was, it didn't sound like a "Yes".
Mephiles sighed again, exasperatedly.
"You really should come out, if you aren't feeling well, Dark." Iblis/Shu offered his own words, having been silent through most of this ordeal. "I can't imagine it to be very comfortable, after all."
A loud sniffle.
"No."
"'No' what?"
"No."
"... He doesn't want to come out..." Mephiles stated, yawning a little.
"Well, no spit he doesn't want to come out, I think he's made that perfectly clear! He just won't tell us why he doesn't want to pull himself out from under there!" Iblis snapped at the hedgehog irritably.
Almost immediately, Dark's soft whine changed to low howl of dread.
"... You're upsetting him more..." Mephiles blinked, trying to not sound accusing, but finding it hard to with that word choice.
"Oh, it's suddenly my fault?"
"N-no... I meant that th- the reason he d-doesn't want t-to come out is b-because he thinks you're g-going to be angry with him..."
"And why would I be that!"
"... Well, f-for one, you're s-snapping at us..." Mephiles explained in a stutter cautiously, twiddling his fingers together. "... Two, he's upset and not th-thinking clearly, so he's assuming th-the worst already. And th-three... He feels like he j-just messed up badly, and y'know h-how he reacts to m-mistakes and accidents... Especially if he's e-embarrassed..."
"I'm only snapping at you because I find it frustrating that I can't even calm down my own little brother after a bad fright or upset because he's too terrified of me half the time!" Iblis growled back, temporarily dropping his "Shu" voice.
"It's n-nothing against you, I'm shuh-sure... He's p-probably afraid of triggering s-something, when he really sh-shouldn't hafta worry..." Mephiles tried to reassure frantically, smiling nervously. "... He loves you more th-than he could ever b-be scared of you..."
"... It really doesn't show sometimes..." Iblis huffed, glaring at Mephiles jealously. "... How many nights since I started being a regular here has he woken me up first if he had a problem?"
"... Now, you c-can't really hold that against him..." Mephiles held his hands up as is to half shield himself. "... He probably didn't want to bother you-"
"As his twin, I'd like to think it shouldn't be a problem at all!"
"... Please not so loud, I'm not the only one with good hearing, remember?" Mephiles said in a hushed tone, looking at the door anxiously. "... I meant that he probably didn't want to startle you, because you do wake up rather tense and half ready to slap something if you're roused some way other than gradually..."
"I do not!"
"... Did we forget the flame you conjured up earlier before Shadow and Rouge showed up..?"
"I heard Dark scream, I reacted accordingly..."
"They could have caught that, y'know..."
"I really hate that I have to hide who I really am when it's not the three of us... It gets really hard sometimes..."
"But we have to take it slow. If we don't, you already know what might happen... We don't want that..."
"... No..."
"Right." Mephiles nodded slowly. "Anyway, I suppose another reason he might have for coming to me first, is probably because of the whole being separated from me for a few months, and having the spend the next one or so afterwards afraid that he was going to lose me for good..."
"If I recall, him and I spent a whole decade apart from each other..."
"I'm not denying that... But after a while, he just felt that he lost you already and was convinced that you were never coming back. You already know how much that broke him." Mephiles reminded the flame gently. "... Before he started figuring out how to be more tangible for me to see him, he just went dead silent for a long time when it really sunk in. I remember sensing him still around, but for the longest time I could keep track of, he didn't talk or give me much indication that he could really hear me..."
"That really doesn't help much..." Iblis grunted, shaking his head.
"All I'm trying to say here is that maybe after what he went though with Dire, he's still trying to adjust to the way things are now. Now he's got us both, especially after he had been so sure that we died at some point or another..." The hedgehog added. "... But some habits will take a while before he grows out of them, or at least manages them better. He loves you, regardless, and nothing will change that..."
"Really? Because it sure didn't feel that way when he wanted nothing to do with me a while back." Iblis snarked back, causing Mephiles to flinch.
"... No amount of what I say to 'why' on that will do anything to lessen that..." Mephiles muttered dreadfully, shaking his head before speaking louder. "I guess you didn't know about how he got even more down than he usually is, after you sorta disappeared and we all took you for dead. He'd tell me about these dreams he'd have about the two of you before things went bad, even."
Before Iblis could add his observations, Dark's voice drifted in between that feebly.
"... It's... It's d-dark under here..."
"... Do you need help get out of there?" Mephiles was the first to respond.
"... Brother's g-getting angry... Making my h-head hurt again..." Dark mumbled, losing his growl again. "... P-please don't fight... Please d-don't... I'm s-sorry... I d-didn't mean to f-favor anyone more than th-the other..."
"We're not fighting, Dark." Mephiles quickly added, glancing sidewise at Iblis, who looked as though he would have rather been slapped than to have heard Dark voice such a worry. "We're just getting a bit snappish because it's late and we're all just tired..."
"... Brother's m-mad... Head always h-hurts when he's mad... T-too much negative energy..."
"I keep forgetting that! I'm so sorry, Dark!" Iblis whispered frantically, dropping his voice back to the pitch and tone he used with "Shu", looking all the more guilty. "I'll stop right now, if you want!"
"... M-Mephy..? Where are you..? I d-don't like it under here... G-get me out..."
Iblis felt like he had been ignored, but before he sent a slight glare Mephiles' way, he caught himself, worried that he'd make his twin brother's headache worse.
"... Be easier to pull you out if you change into a cat or something... Your quills will get you stuck, otherwise..." The hedgehog tried coaxing the shadow under the bed.
Eventually, Dark was finally retrieved from his hiding spot, having taken Mephiles' suggestion of becoming a cat, and immediately flattened his body against the hedgehog's shoulder, forcefully nudging his head into Mephiles quills as if to hide his embarrassment of having reacted as such.
"... Um... Yeah... So..." Mephiles could feel Iblis behind him staring at him intently, feeling incredibly awkward knowing that the flame was starting to get just a bit jealous of his twin's preference of the hedgehog over himself. Thinking hurriedly for a compromise to make everyone happy, he tried to detached Dark from his shoulder, but was greeted with a sudden prick of retractable claws trying to anchor the cat shaped shadow in place. Dark obviously wasn't ready to move. "... Aw, nuts..."
"Well, he sure doesn't seem to want to let go of you."
"I noticed. It's not my fault!" Mephiles whispered nervously, not at all liking how he felt caught in the middle of this. "... Really, even on a bad day, he's not usually this clingy... That's usually me that gets like that..."
"... You know, you're right. He's not like that often..." Iblis finally sounded less jealous and more observant once that fact sunk in, much to Mephiles' relief. "... Unless something really unsettled him."
"But, the thing about that is that I would have felt it, too." Mephiles reminded him, turning slightly to look at Iblis. "We're emotionally linked, remember..? And I didn't feel anything..."
"... Is it possible for you to miss it if you're asleep?"
"..." Mephiles inhaled to start his almost automatic response, but paused when he considered a possibility. Blinking and frowning slightly, he said: "... I've been woken up a few times before when he gets really unsettled, but I can't really say that it had happened every time, so honestly, I can't say 'yes' to that completely..." He shook his head carefully, cautious to not let his sharp quill edges scrape against the shadow cat's face pressed against them. "Not unless I've been awake every time he's been... Which I know I haven't always..."
"Then it could just be that he had another one of those... Well, y'know..." Iblis hesitated in flat out saying "bad dream" or "nightmare", considering how Dark would likely be embarrassed even further upon hearing the word choice.
"... He was trying to wake me up earlier..." Mephiles said slowly, reaching up absentmindedly to pet Dark on the head. "... And he did get sick... That happens with me after them sometimes, even..."
"But, they'd been getting less frequent with him, I thought..?"
"Doesn't mean they're gone completely. Just less common." Mephiles shook his head lightly again.
Suddenly, Dark shifted back into his usual form with a POOF! with the sudden weight difference relative to what stance Mephiles had causing the hedgehog to topple backwards with a strangled cry of shock. Dark was sitting on the fallen hedgehog, pale face flushed from overall embarrassment, thought lightly not from what just happened just now.
"D-Dark! Geh-off!" Mephiles huffed, squirming a bit to be able to sit up. "I think you're crushing my spleen!"
"I believe your spleen would be higher up, and that it would be impossible for me to actually crush it doing this..."
"My liver then! You're breaking my liver!"
"Also impossible. You don't know much about internal organ work, do you?"
"Would you just get off before you bruise a kidney?" Mephiles reach up to shove Dark sideways, which Dark simply allowed himself to topple over without even reaction much, just blinking when he hit the floor. "You're not normally that heavy! What happened!"
"Looks and shadows aren't the only things I can manipulate." Dark looked up and grinned nervously as he braced a hand against the floor to push himself back up. "Granted, it depends on whether I feel like moving or not. My density just changes, so I just feel heavier."
"Well, it sure feels like you cracked a-"
"Either the next word out of your mouth is going to be 'bone', or you fail at physiology forever."
"I'm eleven, maybe twelve years old, and I have never been inside a classroom before. Give me credit for at least knowing about the spleen."
"Do you even know what it does?"
"Do you?"
"... Um..."
"And you're giving me a bad time about that? Hypocrite."
"You feeling better now, Dark?" Iblis spoke up, having been sitting on the floor, legs crossed and was leaning forward, head resting in his hands.
Dark jumped a little and quickly looked down, trying to hide the light vermillion shade that was rising in his cheeks again.
"... Mmm..." He grunted, sounding more like a "Maybe" than a "Yes" or "No".
Iblis sighed awkwardly.
"You don't have to be embarrassed around me, y'know that, right?"
"... I can't help it sometimes..."
Iblis shot a brief look at Mephiles, who was quick to seem incredibly interested in the wood grain of his bed frame.
"Sure is getting late..." The hedgehog said in a half sing-songish tone, as if trying to draw attention to the fact that he felt they should all be sleeping by now.
"So it is."
"... Maybe we should go back to sleep now..?"
"Huh... Look at that, a letter from Tails..." Shadow said the following morning, sifting through the mail. "Wonder what he wants..?"
"We don't usually get mail unless it's bills, junk or something from Sonic..." Mephiles said, reaching for a waffle with a fork from the plate in the center. "Wonder what it's about..?"
"Well let's see..." Shadow set the rest of the mail down on the counter and shuffled through the cutlery drawer for a knife to open the letter with. "Okay, let's take a look..."
"Dark, just take the waffle."
"It touched bacon, Mephy. I don't want it..." Dark whined, pushing it away with another plate.
"You have to be the only person who doesn't like bacon..."
"He's a vegetarian, Shadow. Of course he doesn't like bacon."
"His loss." Shu shrugged, taking the bacon infected waffle instead.
"Well, what's the letter say?" Mephiles looked up.
"Oh, right, the letter..." Shadow pulled it out of the envelope and scanned his eyes over it. "... Let's see... He says that he wants to know how that cooling collar for Dark works, if you've been able to use it yet. Also... Oh..."
"What?"
"Is it already that time..?"
"What?" Rouge leaned over to read it as well. "Oh. Already?"
"Guys, I don't know what you mean..."
"Sonic's birthday is coming up, and Tails wants to know if we can show up for the party..." Shadow said, folding up the letter. "We weren't able to last year because of... Stuff. But I'm sure it's a hit and miss this time too, because I'm sure that Dark won't-"
"You're assuming again."
"You actually want to go?"
"I didn't say that." Dark shrugged half heartedly while absentmindedly petting Tape as the cat lay curled on his lap.
"Then what's the problem?"
"Actually, that could be fun." Mephiles smiled. "Sonic and Tails are really nice, you know. I don't think you met Sonic yet, Dark..."
"After what happened last time we almost did meet, I still don't think it's a great idea to cross paths..." Dark frowned slightly. "How about if we wait another... Five, ten years..?"
"Oh, please. He won't even know about that. We don't even look like that anymore." Mephiles snorted. "And really, he's a nice guy. I don't know why Shadow tries to avoid him so much, even."
"Because he tries too hard to shoehorn me into everything."
"You should be happy that he wants to be your friend." Rouge glanced sidewise at Shadow and smiled slightly.
"Can we go anyway?" Mephiles grinned. "When is it?"
"The twenty-third." Shadow folded the paper back up. "But really, it depends on whether we are able to and if everyone wants to..."
"It could be fun, right?"
"Shadow's right, though." Rouge reminded him. "It depends on how it all turns out."
"Is it just me, or is Kai getting lighter?"
"Feels the same to me."
"No, I mean the color. Like grayer, instead of blackish."
Dark glanced sidewise at the Chao being held up inches from his face, then at Mephiles, back to Kai, and then Mephiles again. He gave a disinterested shrug.
"Dark, I'm serious. Should he be getting lighter?" Mephiles stamped his foot impatiently.
"You should know by now that Chao respond to how they are treated. Getting lighter means that they are changing alignment..."
"And that's... Good..?"
"What do you think?" Dark said a little more snappish than he meant to have. He cringed when Mephiles flinched, and Shu/Iblis tilted his head in baffled concern. "... What..?"
"Something bothering you..?" Shu said carefully.
"Hmm?"
"Because if there is, y'know you can tell us..?"
"What? Oh!" Dark spun a bit in his chair, bracing an arm against the tabletop. "No! Nothing like that! I'm just a bit irritated from the lack cooled nights lately..."
"Maybe it's time to start wearing that collar again..." Mephiles said slowly, placing Kai back down. "It's not winter anymore, and too much heat makes you sick-"
"No, I'm fine!" Dark snapped back, Mephiles noticing a flicker of anxiety dance across the shadow's features briefly. "Really!"
"Dark, last time you suffered heat stroke, you were quite ill." Shu frowned slightly. "I'm sure you remember what I'm talking about."
"Daaaaark..." Mephiles half whined upon hearing that. "You could have really been hurt..."
"... Is there anything that happens the doesn't make you say that..?" Dark growled under his breath.
"It wouldn't hurt to start wearing it soon." Shu offered as advice. "Before you get heat stroke again, at least."
Dark made a small noise that didn't seem much an answer at all.
"I could go get it right now." Mephiles said, smiling a little and turning to retrieve it.
Dark was swift to catch him by the arm.
"Not. Right. Now." Dark said in a low and irritated tone.
Mephiles stared back with wide eyes, the small smile long fallen from his face now.
"... D-D-Dark... Th-that hurts..." He whimpered, reaching a shaky hand to pry loose carefully.
Dark quickly let go and withdrew his hand as though he might have been burned, though he looked more like he was startled than anything.
"I-I'm sorry! I just don't want to wear it!"
"Why not? Dark, you know what will happen if you let yourself overheat!" Shu frowned. "Let us get it for you."
"No!" Dark shouted defensively, pushing up from the chair and stepping away from his brothers, who watched him in concern as his voice raised in pitch. "I don't want-! I c-can't-! No! No! It's going to burn! It'll hurt me!"
"Dark, Tails took out the shock part, remember? It's just a cooling collar now." Mephiles reached out gently, stepping towards Dark carefully, Dark flinching before calming back down once Mephiles touched his shoulder. "That won't happen to you again, I promise."
Dark dropped his gaze to the floor dejectedly but didn't respond.
"You trust me, don't you? I promised you. You trust me, right?" The hedgehog added frantically, eyes starting to shimmer. "If I didn't think it was safe for you, I wouldn't be trying to make you wear it..."
There was quite a hesitation before Dark finally lifted his eyes and gave a heavy lidded stare before the corners of his mouth twitched and and he formed a small, gentle smile.
"... Of course I trust you... I've always trusted you..." Dark raised his hands to wring them nervously as Mephiles put his other hand on the other shoulder as well. "... I... I just don't feel... right wearing it... It was what I had to wear when I was captive... It shocked me every time I tugged at it... It left burns on my neck..."
"It won't do that again. It's only going to keep you from overheating. We don't want you to overheat, you'll get sick." Mephiles sniffled and nodded sharply, forcing a smile back on his face.
"I could go get it..." Shu offered, but Mephiles shook his head, much to the annoyed confusion from the green and tan colored hedgehog with black markings.
"No. I should get it. You can stay here with, Dark... You guys need some time alone together, anyway..."
"I doubt ten seconds count that much..." Shu growled lowly.
"I'm not that fast... And honestly, every second should count." Mephiles pulled his hands away. "Seriously, if I had said you should get it, I have the feeling that you would have been getting jealous that I was the one staying behind with Dark."
"Why don't we ask Dark what he thinks about it?"
"Why don't we not?" Mephiles shook his head again, looking appalled by the idea as Dark inhaled sharply and grit his teeth, shuddering. "You can't force him to decide like that! You know that! Why are you doing that!"
Before Shu could answer, Dark squeezed his eyes shut, which had a couple of tears gathering in the corners, dropped his head and shouted: "Brother can stay with me! I don't mind! Mephy can get the collar! I don't mind! I don't mind! I DON'T MIND!"
"D-Dark... P-Please calm down..." Mephiles stammered, ears folding back and eyes widening, catching Dark's shoulders again. "... Um... Why... Why don't we all just go together..? Y-Yeah... That would have b-been a lot easier... Why didn't I th-think of that to begin with..?" He gave an anxious giggle, trying to help being ease back to the conversation, but instead sounded like he needed the convincing the most. "Y-yeah... Why d-don't we all j-just go together..? You like that, Dark? Is that b-better..?"
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to upset anyone!" Shu waved his hands in front of himself frantically, looking shocked with what he did, and just about close to tears as well. "Let's go with that suggestion! Everyone will be happy then! And you'll be happier, too, won't you, Dark?"
Dark opened his eyes slowly and looked up cautiously at his twin behind his hands that he was hiding his face in.
"... Don't be mad at Mephy... He just wants to do the same thing as you..."
"D-Dark, we really shouldn't be b-bringing that up..." Mephiles turned away awkwardly. "... Let's j-just drop it and g-go get that c-collar now..."
"No, you just go with him. He likes you better anyway." Shu snapped, folding his arms and baring his teeth a little.
Mephiles' fur stood on end as he felt a sudden jolt of energy in the air, followed by a steady increase. His eyes widened instantly, his pupiless irises shrinking as he slowly looked over his shoulder at Dark.
Dark was livid.
Oh, Chaos, that was not good.
Before Mephiles could intervene, Dark grabbed Shu's upper arm and threw him face first into the fridge door, causing the room to fall chillingly silent from shock, save for the angered huffs of air from Dark, who looked as though he was thinking about doing that again without question.
Shu, dazed, looked up from the floor with a shocked look that was only bested by the mute terror Mephiles had on his own face, before a metaphorical fire lit up behind the green hedgehog's eyes.
"You... You ungrateful little brat!" Shu's voice dropped back into Iblis' growl as he pushed up from the floor and a faint trickle of smoke escaped him as he huffed angrily. "You have no idea how patient I've been with you, do you! I have been trying to be what I couldn't have been before, but ever since he woke up from his coma, you've been doing nothing but latching on to him, and you've even started to be afraid of me again!"
"I almost lost him! What did you expect me to do after all that! He nearly died! You're the one who's been acting up!"
"G-guys..? S-Stop... P-please..?" Mephiles stammered in a small voice, quite certain they wouldn't hear him at all, and he wondered if it was wise of him to say anything at all during this.
"I've been acting up? Who's the one who wouldn't come out from under the bed the other night because he threw up on it!" Shu/Iblis shouted, eyes starting to glow orange, much to Mephiles' apprehension.
"That wasn't why I was hiding!" Dark screeched angrily, stomping his foot. "It's not like I purposely vomited so I'd have an excuse to hide under there!"
"Then why did you! You never told us the real reason!"
"No!"
"... S-seriously... Sh-Shadow and Rouge will b-be home any m-minute... T-tone it down qu-quick..." Mephiles stuttered, glancing at the door.
"I'm not asking you to ignore him, but it would be nice if once in a while you came to me when something was bugging you!" Iblis/Shu gestured to himself frantically. "I care, too! I'm your older brother, for crying out loud!"
"We're twins! You're not that much older than me!"
"I consider myself older than you by enough that I feel like I should be the protective one!"
"Then what was all that before we split apart!"
Mephiles was opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water, unable to get a word out now. He was quite shocked at the moment that this was happening, much less in the kitchen.
"I-! Y-You know very well that I wasn't in my right mind at the time! I was trying to protect you!" Iblis, who amazingly had kept himself enough in check to not have recklessly shifted back into his real form during this fight, grabbed a nearby plate out of the dish drainer and flung it at Dark, who dodged it with a swift movement, raised his hand and flicked his wrist upward, an action that was accompanied by the nearby microwave exploding and smacking Iblis in the face with the door.
"You can't just reverse over a decade of trauma just by acting the exact opposite of what I'm used to! It's scares me!"
"I'm not acting! This is how I really am when I'm not crazy!"
"You're acting crazy now, throwing plates at me!"
"You threw me into a fridge door! I think that's well justified!"
"Because you want me to decide between you and Mephy! I can't do that! You know I can't do that! I don't want to hurt either of you!"
"Oh!" Iblis said loudly, still keeping his raised tone of voice, but sounding less infuriated now. "Well, why didn't you just say that from the start, instead of throwing me at the fridge!"
"You made me mad!" Dark followed the same tone as well, still shouting, but not sounding as angry as he was seconds ago. "When you said that I like Mephy better than you, that hurt! I don't like either one of you more than the other! It wouldn't be fair!"
"... Then why don't you come to me anymore when you're upset..?" Iblis dropped his tone.
"... Because I have to be careful about what I do around you..." Dark dropped his tone as well, lowering his head. "... I don't want them to get suspicious and find out you're really Iblis before we can find a way to explain it... I don't want to risk having you taken away..."
Both went silent.
Mephiles inhaled sharply, having stopped breathing for a good minute. He blinked, looked around and twitched his ears slightly. No sign of Shadow and Rouge yet...
"... Um... I-I'll clean up the b-b-broken p-plate, and g-get the c-collar by m-myself..." Mephiles stammered quietly, shuddering a little. "... Y-You t-two j-just st-stay here..." He retrieved a broom and dustpan out of the hall closet. "N-now I have to f-figure out how t-to tell th-them we need a new m-microwave..."
